Lufkin man overcomes 42 years of addiction

LUFKIN, TX (KTRE) - A 65-year-old East Texas man has turned his life around after battling with drug and alcohol addiction for more than 4 decades.

Larry Green's life has been nothing short of a struggle since he was first introduced to drugs and alcohol in the 7th grade. The pressure to fit in was what ultimately got him there.

"You're not cool if you don't hang out," Green said. "So next thing I know I was smoking pot, then I started doing pills, and then I started drinking a little more. In 1985 is when I first got introduced to crack cocaine."

Green said cocaine was the most difficult drug to shake.

"Out of all the drugs I ever did in my life that was one of the hardest drugs I had to get off of," Green said. "However when I gave it to God, it went away."

Before Green gave his life to God he underwent years of hardship. His cravings for drugs and alcohol made him blind to what mattered most.

"I was to blame for everything that happened in my life," Green said. "The loss of my wives, the loss of jobs and all kinds of things."

From 1975 to the year 2010 Green has been in and out of jail on drug related charges.

"The reason I kept going back to jail was because I knew I wasn't going to stay in jail longer than 30 days," Green said. "So what the heck, I'll go to jail they're going to turn around and let me out."

However one day things changed for Green, he stepped back and looked at the man in the mirror.

"When I really looked at myself I cried," Green said. "My mother would always tell me, Larry you need to look at yourself, but I was afraid to look at myself in the mirror; because I really had an idea how I looked."

After battling with his addictions Green made a change.

"God put me where I could be away from it, he put me in jail," Green said. "Going to treatments were one of the best things to ever happen to me. I got to find out about myself, and all the things I blamed everybody else for. I got a chance to look at who's really to blame, and it was me."

Now Green dedicates his life to saving others.

"Ever since God set me free, I want to make it my job to serve God and help other people get off of drugs and alcohol," Green said.

For four years Green has been speaking where he once sat to listen, at AA meetings in the Angelina County Jail.

"I used to be in orange right there where we got the chairs set up, I used to come to the AA meetings," Green said. "Now I'm the teacher of this AA meeting helping people on the way to recovery."

He shares his testimony with prisoners in hopes to help some get cleaned and find God. He even passes out daily prayers.

"You know God is always putting different types of prayers in my head, one day he said put it on paper," Green said. "So I started writing it down on paper, but God said that's not all I want you to do with it, I want you to spread it."

Green wrote a book of prayers, but said the true author is God. Now all he hopes is that his testimony inspires others, and that one day his children can forgive him.

"I just hope that one day that they forgive me," Green said. "We don't have to socialize if they don't want to. I just hope they forgive me and help my grandchildren forgive me."

Green said he has inspired 20 prisoners to turn their life around. His goal is to touch at least two or three every session.

RECENT CONTENT

The Jefferson Police Department continues its criminal investigation Tuesday into the embattled Humane Society of Marion County, after animals were recently discovered living in sub-standard conditions.